Defining Forever
by allurement
Summary: For Epiff Annie. MinatoMikoto. ‘One day she’ll marry a prince,’ he writes onto an empty scroll. ‘Now; let her have fun with the pauper.’


**Title:** Defining Forever  
**Fandom:** Naruto  
**Pairing:** MinatoMikoto. Yeah, that's right.  
**Summary:** _One day she'll marry a prince, and she'll live in a beautiful palace full of riches and jewels_, he writes down on an empty scroll he finds lying around late one night. _Now; let her have fun with the pauper._  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto.

**Notes: **For Annie. This is to make up for the atrosity that your other present was. I hope. You just might end up liking the other one better. Either way, happy birthday again, dear.

* * *

Minato has never spoken a word to Mikoto until he is placed on the same genin team as her, and it's almost like love at first sight for him, except that he's initially too busy being irritated at how she's _plagiarised_ his name to focus on how pretty she is.

Their teacher is only slightly late, but Minato is already impatient; he hears his new sensei is one of the legendary Sannin. Just thinking about the things he could learn from one of the strongest shinobi the village has ever produced makes Minato all the more eager to start training.

Plus, his father had said that Jiraiya-sama was also a very artistic and imaginative man. What he had meant by that, Minato knew not, as when he had questioned his father further, his mother had entered the room and had thrown a knife at his head.

As Minato wonders why his father couldn't have married someone _normal_, a man walks towards him and his teammates, introducing himself as Jiraiya, their new teacher.

_He looks a bit like a white porcupine_, Minato thinks. "There no way someone that looks like him could be one of the strongest shinobi in the village."

One glance at his teammates lets him in on the fact that, oh shit, _he had just said that out loud_.

But Jiraiya doesn't look angry. On the contrary, he looks rather amused, and tells his new team to follow him to a nearby training ground and that he has something to show them.

Once they have arrived, Jiraiya walks a few metres away from them and beckons Minato to follow.

Then, he tells the rest of the team to stand back.

* * *

"… He did that in less than twenty seconds," Mikoto whispers in awe.

The boy next to her checks his watch.

"Fourteen point seven seconds, to be precise," he corrects, staring at his wrist blankly.

"So!" Jiraiya proclaims, striding back to where they are with the grace that only a man who has won a battle against an annoying, little boy can possess. "Who's next?"

The two youngsters exchange nervous glances before looking at Jiraiya's left hand where a very badly bruised Minato was being dragged by the scruff of his neck.

"I'm good, thanks," says Mikoto very quickly.

Her teammate agrees with her before the words have even left her lips.

* * *

"Now, I want to know all of your names," Jiraiya says. Something told his team that they really didn't have any choice but to comply with that demand. "You, Blonde Brat, go first."

Said Blonde Brat scowls before muttering, "Minato."

"And you, girl?"

"Mikoto," she says politely.

Jiraiya furrows his brow and glances between Minato and Mikoto, his features donning a perturbed expression.

"You know," he says very slowly after, "I don't know whether you two get this a lot, but you kids _really_ don't look at all like twins—"

"We're not related!" both scream—

(well, Mikoto screams; Jiraiya kicked Minato in the throat earlier so all he can do now is croak)

—at the same time.

Jiraiya looks alarmed at the two; Minato is fixing him with a murderous stare that even Orochimaru would be proud of, and Mikoto looks like she is about to cry. He looks to the last member of his team for some explanation as to why he got handed out the most psychotic of teams.

"Their names got confused a lot back at the Academy. That's why they never speak to each other," is all he receives in reply.

_This is karma_, Jiraiya thinks morosely to himself. _This is payback for all the times I tried looking down Tsunade-hime's shirt and putting honey all over Orochimaru's hair and stealing Sarutobi-sensei's porn. Shit. Shitshitshit._

* * *

"Shit!" Minato curses, wrenching a kunai out of his shoulder and staggering to his feet.

It is his team's first B-rank mission, and damn it, things weren't supposed to turn out the way they did. He looks around to see the rest of his team fighting off numerous enemy-nin before whirling around and stabbing one behind him.

_Wait_, Minato thinks, furrowing his brow,_ where's Mikoto?_

On cue, a scream echoes from the distance, and Minato realises in alarm who that voice belongs to. He knocks out two enemy-nin who try to take him on at once, and leaps onto a tree, crouching on a low branch.

"I'll go get her!" he calls out to his teacher and his teammate, both who simply nod before they are overwhelmed with the sheer number of enemies they have to face. Minato leaves them quickly, believing them perfectly capable to defend themselves.

Another scream reminds Minato that the same couldn't be said for his only female teammate.

Minato looks around to determine where the source of the screaming is. Once he has, he practically flies through the leaves and branches carelessly, never pausing for a second as twigs and small branches hit him.

When he arrives at the scene, he sees Mikoto trying to fend off more than a dozen enemy-nin, and instantly swoops down.

He doesn't take them all on at once. He doesn't tell Mikoto to stand back, that he'll handle them all. He doesn't save her, like a prince on his steed would save a princess in those fairytales Mikoto's older sister would read to her at night.

Instead, he lands behind her and presses his back to hers in the silent reassurance that he will protect her if she needs it, and that alone.

"Ready to take them down?" he pants, out of breath from his run to her.

She nods with a steely, determined look in her eyes and grips her kunai tighter in her hands.

Before any of the sneering nin can register it, they're either being knocked out or killed on the spot.

* * *

They win that battle. And as Minato pulls out a kunai from an enemy-nin's back, he chuckles weakly to himself and wipes away the blood from his eye.

He looks to where Mikoto is. She is injured, but as she staggers to her feet, she is smiling at him and silently thanking him for treating her as his equal.

Minato grins back.

This is how they begin.

* * *

"Thank you," Mikoto says as they're walking home from the mission once they part ways with the rest of their team. "I really appreciate what you did back there."

"How about you show your appreciation when I take you out for dinner tomorrow night?" Minato asks, trying his luck out.

Mikoto smiles.

"How about I don't?" she asks nicely, because she is a polite girl who was taught that if she were to reject any potential suitors, she should do so gently and with a smile.

"Yeah, that works too."

* * *

"Mikoto, will you—"

"No thank you."

"… Damn."

* * *

But her patience begins to run thin after a while, and she finds it hard to be polite when all she wants to do is strangle the aforementioned suitor.

"Mikoto, darling—"

"No."

"But—"

"No."

"I love you!"

"… That's nice."

* * *

"So um, I was wondering," Minato says offhandedly. "What are you doing tonight? Not that I'm asking you out or anything; this is purely a question that a neutral third party who has no motives or goals or interests would ask." They are walking back after a team training session, their houses being in the same general vicinity.

"Nothing much. My mother will probably be lecturing me for an hour or so. I'm meeting the guy my parents want me to marry at tonight's dinner," Mikoto replies, pulling a face.

Minato looks at his feet. He had forgotten that her clan was organising an arranged marriage for her.

"Oh," he says dejectedly.

"Minato, are you okay?" Mikoto asks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine, Mikoto."

* * *

"Ugh," a frustrated Mikoto says, plopping down on a stool next to Minato.

Minato, who was busy wolfing down a bowl of ramen, turns to see who it is. When he sees Mikoto, his face lights up and he swallows whatever is in his mouth without chewing it first before saying, "Mikoto! Eh, aren't you supposed to be at that dinner-thing?"

Mikoto pouts and orders a bowl of miso ramen.

"Yeah. It just finished. I'm starving; my mother only let me eat a mouthful of rice."

"Why?"

"Apparently, it's not lady-like to eat like a normal human being," Mikoto scoffed.

"Oh. So um, how was your fiancé-dude?"

"Ugh, don't even get me started on him. He's like, fifteen years older than me, Minato! That mean's he's thirty! I'm pretty sure it's illegal for me to marry someone that old and wrinkled," Mikoto complains, accepting the bowl of ramen served to her.

"So he's an ugly, old man?" Minato asks incredulously, outraged.

When Mikoto nods mutely, Minato gasps indignantly. He has half a mind to stomp right down to Mikoto's residence and _demand_ her parents to annul her betrothal.

Then he remembers who Mikoto's father is and silences all thoughts on the matter.

"Well… he's not exactly ugly," Mikoto corrects herself after a few seconds. "But seriously, if I wanted to go out with a guy, I'd want him to be my age, you know?"

Minato tries to ignore the fluttering feeling in his stomach as he asks, "Haven't you discussed it with your parents?"

"It's a clan thing," Mikoto says. "If I don't go through with it, I'd be breaking ten generations of tradition or something equally as scandalous as that."

"Oh," Minato mumbles, and then there is silence between the pair for a few minutes before Mikoto looks at him and smiles gently.

"Hey, Minato," she says. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"Nothing," he mutters, staring at his unfinished bowl of ramen. "Why?"

Mikoto's gentle smile turns into a large grin, and she places her hand on Minato's shoulder to get his full attention.

"Want to go out with me on a date?"

At first, Minato thinks he must be having the best dream ever. After all, Mikoto and ramen, the two loves of his life, are in it _at the same time_. He braces himself to wake up at any second—because good dreams usually end just when it's about to get _really _good—when he sees Mikoto looking at him strangely.

"Er… Minato?" she says uncertainly. "If you don't want to—"

"YesI'dloveto!"

* * *

"How come you kept rejecting me all the time if you were just going to ask me out later on?"

"I don't know; don't guys like it when girls play hard to get?"

"… Sometimes."

* * *

She's turning sixteen next month and her childhood will be cut short; her betrothed will propose. What happens will inevitably happen, but she doesn't want it to.

"So, your birthday's coming up, eh?" Minato says, squeezing her hand in his.

Mikoto looks down at their entwined fingers.

"Yeah."

She _really_ doesn't want it to happen.

* * *

_One day she'll marry a prince, and she'll live in a beautiful palace full of riches and jewels_, he writes down on an empty scroll he finds lying around late one night. _Now; let her have fun with the pauper._

So she does. And as she laughs, she falls in love.

* * *

"You need oxygen, you need friends, you need family, you need… ramen—but you do _not_ need another gold necklace," he tells her sternly. "It's just indulgent. Tell him you don't want it."

Mikoto laughs and kisses him lightly on the cheek.

"Don't be a spoilsport, Minato," she says.

"But how am I supposed to compete with that bloody Uchiha if he keeps dishing out cash like this! I may be brilliant and charming and witty and—"

"I get the point."

"—oh-so-handsome—"

"Minato."

"—and _perfect_—"

"What are you trying to get at?"

"I can't keep up with the stream—no, _ocean_—of gifts he's just _drowning_ you in," Minato bursts out, grabbing two fistfuls of his blonde hair and tugging it in aggravation.

Mikoto smiles gently and pries his hands off of his head, taking them into hers and pressing a kiss onto each of them.

"What are you still competing for?" she asks, shaking her head and staring up at him adoringly. "You've already won."

* * *

Tomorrow is her birthday.

"Minato?"

"Yep?"

"What do you think 'forever' means?"

"Um. Neverending? Eternal?"

"But how do you describe those in realistic terms? No one knows what eternity is, after all."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I just do."

"Hm."

"Well?"

"Forever… is… I don't know, really. But I do know that forever is how long I'm going to love you."

"… And what if forever ends tomorrow?"

"It won't, Mikoto. I promise you, it won't."

* * *

"Today, the dreaded future has finally arrived," Minato says through grit teeth.

He looks at her in the way he's always looked at her: through big, beautiful blue eyes, with such love and tenderness she knows she won't find anywhere else, even if it's mixed with a tinge of anger she knows isn't directed at her.

She hopes she can be half as happy with Fugaku as she is with Minato. That way, she will have all the happiness she'll ever need.

Mikoto blinks away the tears that are threatening to form in her eyes, and she wishes there was a _jutsu_ that would be able to stop time, to freeze this perfect moment.

But there isn't, and a split-second after—

"Congratulations, you're officially his now."

* * *

"So this is it?" he says.

"I suppose it is," she replies softly.

"Oh."

Mikoto looks away from him, at her feet, at the tree some distance behind his left shoulder—anywhere but him.

"I can't see you again?" he prods on.

"We're on the same team, silly. Of course we'll see each other again," Mikoto says, trying to lighten the mood.

It doesn't seem to be working, though, as Minato doesn't laugh or crack a smile. In fact, this is one of the only times that Mikoto has seen the boy look so stoic and serious, and she's almost slightly afraid of him now.

"Mikoto," he says sternly.

Mikoto sighs and recites out the words that she has been rehearsing for the past few months.

"No, I don't think that would be appropriate. Maybe we should leave this here and be done with it."

Minato looks to the ground and smiles sadly, nodding his head as if confirming a thought to himself.

"I thought so," he says. "So I guess this is goodbye to us, then."

"Yeah," Mikoto says. "It is."

This is how they end.

* * *

The next day, the team meet up at a training ground, and Jiraiya instantly knows something is wrong. He is not the most observant of men unless it comes to semi- or fully-naked women, but even he knows when his team of five years is acting strange.

Minato constantly scowls at something to his left, Mikoto won't look anywhere else besides her feet and the last member of the team just stands in between the pair, unsure of what to do.

Jiraiya pulls him aside for a moment, grabbing him by the collar of his Chuunin vest.

"Okay, punk," Jiraiya says. "I want you to tell me who the hell died and why I wasn't given the memo ten minutes ago."

"Ten minutes ago? What—"

"Eleven minutes ago!"

The boy flinches.

"It's not like that, Jiraiya-sensei," he says, prying his teacher's fingers off of him. "Minato and Mikoto kind of broke up."

"… They were going out?"

"That's why I said 'kind of', sensei."

* * *

"You know, the wedding isn't until next year," she says sheepishly.

Minato looks up quickly from his bowl of ramen. His face split into a large grin at the sight of her, and he immediately abandons his dinner and bounds over to where she is.

That night, as they sit atop Hokage Mountain looking at the stars, Minato counts his blessings.

It's not easy to define the word 'forever,' but to them, it's how long their love will last—and they know it's never going to end.

* * *

**A/N:**

I purposely avoided giving the last member of Jiraiya's team a name, because I wasn't about to make an OC and abandon my morals. I might look more for a canon character though, as I like the idea of more Team Jiraiya fics.

I do not know whether Minato likes ramen like his son or whether he does not come from a prestigious family. I made it up. That being said, I know Kishimoto is going to release some _Naruto_ chapters in the future which will disprove my theory of Minato and Mikoto being teammates, and it's going to come and bite me in the ass, but for now, whatever. Mikoto's profile said she was a Jounin, so she has to be a ninja, and the picture of Minato's teammates show a girl that looks… a _little_ bit like her?

But this is just purely hopeful thinking on my part.


End file.
